When I met Adrian I didn't just fall in love with him - I've had the opportunity to meet and gradually get to know most of his children, grandchildren, siblings and even a favourite Aunt and a few cousins. Everyone has welcomed me with open arms - so much kindness and grace, it's been a truly wonderful experience. I have this huge, new circle of family, that I love. Today, Adrian's daughter Brooklyn, presented me with a lovely Mother's Day gift. I was so surprised and touched. She made me the loveliest Ukrainian inspired beaded bracelet. I love it and am so blessed to be able to call this extended family my own. Happy Mother's Day!

This is my third visit to Tanzania and ,y first glimpse of the top of Kilimanjaro. So excited to get to see it on our way to the airport. Our journey home is a long one. We were up early this am, spent the better part of the day killing time in the Mount Meru hotel in Arusha before the hour plus trip to the airport. We fly out on KLM at 9:05 pm, 12 +/- hour flight to Amsterdam, 3.5 hour layover, followed by an 8 hour flight to Toronto. From Toronto we travel back to Halifax via Ottawa. So 4 flights and about 36 hours of travel. Phew - worth every minute though.

It's been a very busy trip and today it was delightful to just relax, take a breath and catch up on things like this blog. Adrian spent some time going over the new Nashapay School strategic plan, part of our role is to help guide the community through these types of processes. We moved hotels from the new, Kika Resort Hotel, to the African Tulip. Bit of a price difference but it was so nice to have both working internet and air conditioning. The hotel is beautiful. We're here for 2 nights. Tomorrow we see a bit more of Arusha and on Sunday we'll travel to the West side of Kilimanjaro for the night so we're close to the airport for our Monday night flight.

What an adventure. We were privileged to be invited to accompany Clamian and Josephine to visit family about 2.5 hours away from Arusha. Clamian's family member is gifting him a Bull to allow his herd and Maasai community to begin transitioning to a different breed. Clamianj explained that this was a gift of a young bull, and that he needed to visit, see and mark the bull. Once marked the bull he chose would continue to grow or possibly die, however if he didn't visit and make his mark, the gift would always be honoured but with a "young" bull no matter how long it took him to collect it.
It was an amazing drive through the Tanzanian countryside, some of Clamian's family live in a ruby mining area. The drive was mainly on dirt roads with gorgeous wildflowers everywhere. Clamian's family were waiting for us with a huge welcome. As always we were warmly welcomed and the community had even slaughtered a goat in honour of Clamian's visit. It was a unique glimpse into Maasai family connections and community. So much tradition, sharing and community sharing in this culture. We even got to see the raw rubies that the mining community profits from. To add some context - Clamian's family is large - his father has four wives and he has 36 siblings. 
On our return to Arusha we Clamian and Josephine invited us into their (Arusha) home for dinner. Lovely to meet their niece, Witness, re-aquaint ourselves with Steve (warrior studying to be a guide) and Lomomo joined us. Lomomo, another family member, is a trained Maasai guide who's doing very well and was our driver for the family trip.

Today we are heading to Arusha where we will spend the final days of this trip. This is another selection of photos from around the community, the school, the dam and our cultural centre. The community came out and sang and gave us a lovely send off. 

The Makuyuni National Park opened in January 2025 and is the park closest to the Maasai Eco Boma. This new park is only 10 minutes away from where we are staying and boasts, pumbas, zebras, elephants, giraffe and many more. Like all the parks, the animals are free to roam so you are never guaranteed what you may see. Apologies - I love giraffes and we saw so many. The park ranger and others including a camera crew joined us on our game ride, giving us an opportunity to get out of the truck and walk around, we even did a bit of a hike through the bush - grasses were taller than I am as the area reaches the tail end of the rainy season. Adrian and I were even interviewed for future park promotion.

Adrian and I, along with our friends Clamian and Josephine, were up at 3:30 am heading to Tarangire National Park for 5 am to start our hot air balloon adventure with Miracle Experience. Kudos to Josephine for being such a good sport and coming along even though she was terrified. What an amazing day. We arrived at the launch site just as the sun was rising. The team greeted us with hot coffee and cookies. The company had a tent washroom available and the safety briefing was both brief and comprehensive. What an amazing new perspective of this amazing park. Our ride was 1 hour and 17 minutes, with light breezes. We landed softly and upright. After landing we enjoyed a traditional toast and then headed to our Bushman Breakfast. the Breakfast site included a fabulous breakfast, wifi access and a phenomenal "Loo with a view". All in all a highlight experience which we plan to share with our family when they join us in 2026.

Adrian was so touched when Mama Clamian and her family welcomed into their fold. Such an extraordinary gesture.

Saturday is market day. We walked from the Eco Boma into Makuyuni to join the fun. The whole community comes out to sell, buy and most importantly to socialize. You can fine everything from electronics, clothing, fruits, vegetables, cooked meats, medicinal herbs and for the men, "Killing me Quickly". "Killing me Quickly" is the Maasai term for alcohol and the market boasts numerous tents supplying a pretty potent local version of the same.

We're building a house in the Eco Boma. One we can use a few times a year and the community can benefit from the rest of the time. We also took some interior photos of a Boma next to ours that we helped fund last year.